I don’t think that’s necessary for the system to work. If topics the community find interest in can reach the front page, and “toxic” subjects are contained well enough, then the system works.

It doesn’t really matter if upvoters are honest or not. If you can cheat in a way that makes your post reach and stay on the front page, it’s very likely that people are interested in discussing the topic.

So far HN system has been working pretty good. Not for all topics of course, some result in really toxic exchanges or annoy some people. But you almost never see spam or obviously astroturfed content in the front page (at least compared to Reddit and other places).

HN moderation is super heavy handed and we like it this way. Alternatives are predictably enshittified.

Moderation has no ability to affect a coordinated voting campaign.

HN does apply negative weight to submissions that seem to be astroturfed. Part of it is automated, part of it is manual reports or admin actions. Similar to what is done for sensitive topics.